Heritage Foundation: Immigration reform will cost $6.3 trillion

The Heritage Foundation is sounding the alarms about the cost of immigration reform again – but this time, the right is trying to shout them down.

On Monday, the conservative think tank released a new study warning that the immigration bill by the Senate Gang of Eight would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion in new spending on entitlements and social programs. It’s an update of a 2007 Heritage study that helped derail the last immigration reform bill that year.

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Within hours, high-profile Republicans and conservative thinkers were telling the rest of the GOP not to listen to Heritage.

Paul Ryan said the study ignored the economic growth that would be created by immigration reform. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an influential conservative analyst, agreed and wrote a National Review blog post arguing that conservatives should think of the economic impact and upward mobility for future generations of immigrants.

And Haley Barbour called it a “political document” that was designed to create alarming headlines – largely by trying to predict the costs over 50 years.

“Why? So the number will seem gigantic,” Barbour said on a conference call with reporters. “If you put the 50-year cost of anything in front of the public, it’s going to be a huge number.”

But Heritage is unfazed – because it says Congress should look out for the interests of the taxpayers.

“It’s clear that any number of people in Washington who would benefit from amnesty, as well as some members of Congress, do not want to consider the costs,” former Sen. Jim DeMint, Heritage’s new president, said at a press conference. “No sensible thinking person could read this study and conclude that over 50 years they could have a positive economic impact.”

Over their lifetime, Heritage says, newly legal immigrants would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits under the Gang of Eight bill – including Social Security and Medicare, social programs like Medicaid and food stamps, and new health coverage under Obamacare – while paying back $3.1 trillion in taxes.

Heritage is focusing what it calls the “fiscal deficit” that would be created over 50 years if illegal immigrants are allowed to stay in the country, arguing that the longer they’re allowed to stay in the country, the more benefits they’d consume – especially Obamacare health coverage.

This time, pro-reform Republicans and conservatives are accusing the think tank of lumping in every possible cost – including public education, which all American children receive – while ignoring the economic growth that would be created by immigration reform.

“The Congressional Budget Office has found that fixing our broken immigration system could help our economy grow. A proper accounting of immigration reform should take into account these dynamic effects,” Ryan said in a statement.

But DeMint called for a “piece by piece” approach to immigration reform, focusing on less controversial provisions like visas for highly skilled workers, and warned that the federal government “is incapable of administering this plan in a way that doesn’t amount huge amounts of fraud.”